By Endiyah Turner
Highlighters, flash cards, long nights, and lots of coffee. This is often what is considered the key for academic success for most students. What if instead of working harder on their studies, the key for success is not how they study, but the way they do it?
We have all been there. We spend countless hours reading the very same paragraph in a textbook. We tell ourselves we need to know the material since we worked hard for five whole hours. Exam day comes and we suddenly can’t remember anything we thought we studied.
The reality is that studying is not about working hard.
The illusion of Productivity
Probably one of the most common mistakes that people make is confusing being busy with being productive. Beautiful color-coded notes, well-organized binders, and aesthetically pleasant places to study may give the illusion of preparedness, but are you actually retaining the information?
Reworking notes may help, but when you are just copying information without trying to memorize anything, chances are you are only improving your writing skills.
Active recall is much more beneficial. Put away your notebooks and try explaining everything you have learned without any aids. When you are able to teach someone the subject, chances are you have understood it much better.
Your brain needs a break, Too
In between all of this, students started viewing exhaustion as a status symbol. Burning the midnight oil started becoming a mark of hard work and missing out on sleep became something to look forward to.
However, the brain is not some machine that will keep working forever without needing to recharge.
A break is what will enable you to work more effectively once you come back to what you were doing. One method is the Pomodoro Technique, where you spend 25 minutes studying and then take a break for five minutes.
Yes, getting some good sleep is actually a form of studying too. Sleep is a very important process when it comes to building up memories.
Stop Cramming, Start Connecting
Now picture yourself studying an entire semester worth of chemistry the day before your final exam. With all the formulas, reactions, and new jargon, it doesn’t take long before your brain reaches overload.
Enter spaced repetition.
Instead of cramming everything in one sitting, go over your materials for multiple days or even weeks. Every time you review your information, try to remember what you have already learned.
Equally important is making sense of how the information is connected. Remembering the equation will help you answer one question, but knowing how it works will help you with ten others.
Cramming may get you through the test, but knowing stays with you forever.
Comparison Is the thief of concentration
It is easy to see people in a class and think that everybody has already figured it out.
One student hardly ever studies and yet manages to get an A. One memorizes a whole chapter in a single sitting. And you’re watching your third YouTube video to finally grasp the first concept.
Learning is not about being the quickest person to understand something.
Some learn via visual means, some do better with practice exercises, and most of us use a variety of methods. It is all about finding the way how you can comprehend and retain the information.
No matter how hard it is for you, your educational process is no less valuable than any other.
Study with purpose, Not panic
Before opening your textbook, ask yourself one question: What exactly do I want to accomplish during this study session?
Instead of saying, “I’m going to study biology,” try setting a specific goal such as, “By the end of this hour, I want to explain cellular respiration without using my notes.”
Small, measurable goals transform studying from an overwhelming responsibility into a series of achievable victories.
And when you get something wrong, don’t immediately view it as failure. Mistakes reveal what you still need to learn. Every incorrect practice question is an opportunity to identify a weakness before it appears on an actual exam.
The Final lesson
College seems like everything in life is based on the next assignment, test, or exam that is around the corner. Although school performance is important, your grades must not be the only measure of your intelligence and abilities.
Learning is an art form, just like anything else, and therefore it takes some time and effort.
The next time you find yourself with books all around you at 2 in the morning, ask yourself if you are actually learning or struggling to get through the subject.
Because, after all, the most intelligent person in the room is not always the one who learns for the longest time. It is the one who knows how to learn.
Study smart. Sleep smart. Learn smart.
-Written by Endiyah turner, Chapter Writer